Illusion, Not Amplification

The job of the product development team is to engineer the illusion of simplicity, not to amplify the perception of complexity.

Software guru Grady Booch said the first part of this quote, but BD00 added the tail end. Apple Inc.’s product development org is the best example I can think of for the Booch part of the quote, and the zillions of mediocre orgs “out there” are a testament to the BD00 part.

According to Warren Buffet, the situation is even worse:

There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult. – Warren Buffet

Translated to BD00-lingo:

Engineers like to make make easy things difficult, and difficult things incomprehensible.

Why do they do it? Because:

A lot of people mistake unnecessary complexity for sophistication. – Dan Ward